The present invention relates to a control system for a refrigerated merchandiser that heats a glass door of the merchandiser to eliminate condensation on the glass door. More particularly, the present invention relates to a control system for a refrigerated merchandiser that initiates a heating process for a glass door of a refrigerated merchandiser using a controller in response to a change in a position of the glass door.
Existing refrigerated merchandisers display fresh and frozen food product in a product display area, and include glass doors to provide visibility of the food product and product accessibility to consumers. Often, condensed moisture accumulates on the exterior surface of the cold glass, which obscures viewing of the product in the merchandiser. The moisture in the relatively warm ambient air of the store can condense on the outside surface of the glass door. Similarly, moisture can condense on the cold inside surface of the glass door when the door is opened. Without heating, the condensation on the outside and inside of the glass door does not clear quickly and obscures the food product in the merchandiser. Long periods of obscured food product caused by condensation may detrimentally impact sales of the food product.
Some glass doors include a resistive coating or semi-conductive film (e.g., tin-oxide) adhered or affixed to the glass door to remove condensation and fog. The resistive coating supplies heat to the glass door via current flow through the coating caused by a supply of electrical potential or electricity from the merchandiser. Typically, the heat applied to the glass door is controlled by a controller based on a duty cycle. These duty cycles are varied between an “on” state (i.e., heat applied to the glass door) and “off” state to regulate the time that heat is applied to the glass door, and are generally defined by the percentage of time that the duty cycle is in the “on” state.
Some merchandisers employ a knob or other manual control that can be used by an operator to set the percentage of time that the duty cycle is in the “on” state based on the experience of the operator. Other existing merchandisers include a sensor to sense parameters of the ambient environment surrounding the merchandiser (e.g., humidity, temperature). A controller is in electrical communication with the sensor, and determines a duty cycle to remove condensation from the glass door based on the sensed parameters.
Typically, sensors of conventional control systems are attached to the merchandiser at a relatively large distance from the glass door and the refrigerated product display area (e.g., on an exterior wall of the merchandiser, on a wall adjacent the merchandiser) to avoid an adverse impact on the sensed parameters caused by infiltration of relatively cold, dry air when the glass door is opened. However, placement of conventional sensors at relatively long distances from the glass door limits the effectiveness of the sensor to accurately measure ambient conditions adjacent the glass door. As a result, the duty cycle determined by the controller may not be adequate to clear the glass door because insufficient heat may be supplied by the resistive coating. Insufficient heat applied to the glass door can cause poor dissipation of condensation and fog. Similarly, inaccurate measurements by the sensor may cause the controller to supply too much heat to the glass door, resulting in increased energy costs.
Existing control systems regulate heat applied to glass doors based on a predetermined duty cycle. These control systems supply electrical potential to the glass door based on the predetermined time that the duty cycle is in the “on” state. The time that the duty cycle is in the “on” state is regulated to limit energy use by the merchandiser. Once the duty cycle enters the “off” state, no electrical potential is supplied to the glass door. When the glass door is opened during the predetermined time that the duty cycle is in the “off” state, condensation may readily form on the interior and/or exterior of the glass door.
Conventional control systems cannot eliminate condensation that forms on the glass door when the duty cycle is in the “off” state. Instead, heat is applied to the glass door to remove condensation only when the duty cycle is in the “on” state. As such, the duty cycle regulated by conventional control systems can adversely affect elimination of condensation from the glass door due to a relatively long period of time between the glass door being opened and the duty cycle entering the “on” state. The inability of existing control systems to actively remove condensation from glass doors in response to formation of condensation allows condensation to remain on the glass doors for a long time, and detrimentally impacts the viewability of the food product.
Similarly, conventional control systems cannot compensate for multiple door openings that occur in a relatively short period of time to adequately clear condensation and fog from the glass doors. For example, when multiple door openings occur and the duty cycle is in the “off” state (i.e., no heat applied to the glass door), condensation can accumulate on the glass door. The condensation is not removed by the control system until the duty cycle enters the “on” state. Depending on the duty cycle, a relatively long period of time can elapse between the last of the multiple door openings and entry of the duty cycle into the “on” state. As a result, the glass door can remain obscured by condensation for a relatively long time.